David E. Symer, M.D., Ph.D.
Department of Lymphoma - Myeloma, Division of Cancer Medicine
Present Title & Affiliation
Primary Appointment
Associate Professor, Department of Lymphoma/Myeloma - Research, Division of Cancer Medicine, University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, Houston, TX
Education & Training
Degree-Granting Education
| 1993 | Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, Baltimore, MD, USA, MD, Medicine |
| 1993 | Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, Baltimore, MD, USA, PHD, Biophysics and Biophysical Chemistry |
| 1984 | Dartmouth College, Hanover, NH, USA, AB, Mathematics |
Postgraduate Training
| 1996-2002 | Clinical Fellowship, Hematology, and Medical Oncology, Johns Hopkins School of Medicine and Johns Hopkins Oncology Center, Baltimore, MD |
| 1996-2002 | Research Fellowship, Molecular Biology and Genetics, Johns Hopkins School of Medicine and Johns Hopkins Oncology Center, Baltimore, MD |
| 1995-1996 | Fellow, Hematology and Oncology, Brigham and Women's Hospital, Boston, MA |
| 1993-1995 | Medical Intern and Resident, Department of Medicine, Brigham and Women's Hospital, Boston, MA |
Board Certifications
| 1999 | Diplomate in Medical Oncology, American Board of Internal Medicine |
| 1997 | Diplomate in Internal Medicine, American Board of Internal Medicine |
Experience & Service
Academic Appointments
Director, Division of Genomics Shared Resource, The Ohio State University Comprehensive Cancer Center, Columbus, OH, 2014 - 2017
Assistant Professor, Department of Cancer Biology and Genetics, The Ohio State University, Columbus, OH, 2009 - 2017
Assistant Professor, Department of Hematology, Division of Internal Medicine, Ohio State University Comprehensive Cancer, Columbus, OH, 2009 - 2014
Principal Investigator, Department of Laboratory of Immunology, Division of Mouse Cancer Genetics Program; Basic Research Laboratory, Center for Cancer Research, National Cancer Institute, Frederick, MD, 2002 - 2009
Honors & Awards
| 2014 | High Performance Computing Innovation Excellence Award, International Data Corporation at Supercomputing 2014 meeting |
| 1997 | Postdoctoral Research Fellowship for physicians, Howard Hughes Medical Institute |
| 1992 | W. Barry Wood Student Research Award, Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine |
| 1984 | Medical Scientist Training Program, Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine |
Professional Memberships
Selected Publications
Peer-Reviewed Articles
- Broutian TR, Jiang B, Li J, Akagi K, Gui S, Zhou Z, Xiao W, Symer DE , Gillison ML. Human papillomavirus insertions identify the PIM family of serine/threonine kinases as targetable driver genes in head and neck squamous cell carcinoma. Cancer Lett 476:22-33, 2020. e-Pub 2020. PMID: 31958486.
- Gillison ML, Akagi K, Xiao W, Jiang B, Pickard RKL, Li J, Swanson BJ, Agrawal AD, Zucker M, Stache-Crain B, Emde A-K, Geiger HM, Robine N, Coombes KR, Symer DE. Human papillomavirus and the landscape of secondary genetic alterations in oral cancers. Genome Res 29(1):1-17, 2019. e-Pub 2018. PMID: 30563911.
- Wang Y, Liyanarachchi S, Miller KE, Nieminen TT, Comiskey DF, Li W, Brock P, Symer DE, Akagi K, DeLap KE, He H, Koboldt DC, de la Chapelle A. Identification of Rare Variants Predisposing to Thyroid Cancer. Thyroid 29(7):946-955, 2019. e-Pub 2019. PMID: 30957677.
- Suarez-Kelly L, Akagi K, Reeser JW, Samorodnitsky E, Reeder M, Smith A, Roychowdhury S, Symer DE, Carson WE. Metaplastic breast cancer in a patient with neurofibromatosis type 1 and somatic loss of heterozygosity. Cold Spring Harb Mol Case Stud, 2018. e-Pub 2018. PMID: 29449315.
- Warburton A, Redmond CJ, Dooley KE, Fu H, Gillison ML, Akagi K, Symer DE, Aladjem MI, McBride AA. HPV integration hijacks and multimerizes a cellular enhancer to generate a viral-cellular super-enhancer that drives high viral oncogene expression. PLoS Genet 14(1):e1007179, 2018. e-Pub 2018. PMID: 29364907.
- El Refaey M, Xu L, Gao Y, Canan BD, Adesanya TMA, Warner SC, Akagi K, Symer DE, Mohler PJ, Ma J, Janssen PML, Han R. In Vivo Genome Editing Restores Dystrophin Expression and Cardiac Function in Dystrophic Mice. Circ Res 121(8):923-929, 2017. e-Pub 2017. PMID: 28790199.
- Yuan H, Krawczyk E, Blancato J, Albanese C, Zhou D, Wang N, Paul S, Alkhilaiwi F, Palechor-Ceron N, Dakic A, Fang S, Choudhary S, Hou TW, Zheng YL, Haddad BR, Usuda Y, Hartmann D, Symer D, Gillison M, Agarwal S, Wangsa D, Ried T, Liu X, Schlegel R. HPV positive neuroendocrine cervical cancer cells are dependent on Myc but not E6/E7 viral oncogenes. Sci Rep 7:45617, 2017. e-Pub 2017. PMID: 28378747.
- Kannan M, Li J, Fritz SE, Husarek KE, Sanford JC, Sullivan TL, Tiwary PK, An W, Boeke JD, Symer DE. Dynamic silencing of somatic L1 retrotransposon insertions reflects the developmental and cellular contexts of their genomic integration. Mob DNA 8:8, 2017. e-Pub 2017. PMID: 28491150.
- Starrett GJ, Marcelus C, Cantalupo PG, Katz JP, Cheng J, Akagi K, Thakuria M, Rabinowits G, Wang LC, Symer DE, Pipas JM, Harris RS, DeCaprio JA. Merkel Cell Polyomavirus Exhibits Dominant Control of the Tumor Genome and Transcriptome in Virus-Associated Merkel Cell Carcinoma. MBio 8(1), 2017. e-Pub 2017. PMID: 28049147.
- Tomsic J, He H, Akagi K, Liyanarachchi S, Pan Q, Bertani B, Nagy R, Symer DE, Blencowe BJ, de la Chapelle A. A germline mutation in SRRM2, a splicing factor gene, is implicated in papillary thyroid carcinoma predisposition. Sci Rep 5:10566, 2015. e-Pub 2015. PMID: 26135620.
- He H, Li W, Liyanarachchi S, Srinivas M, Wang Y, Akagi K, Wang Y, Wu D, Wang Q, Jin V, Symer DE, Shen R, Phay J, Nagy R, de la Chapelle A. Multiple functional variants in long-range enhancer elements contribute to the risk of SNP rs965513 in thyroid cancer. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A 112(19):6128-33, 2015. e-Pub 2015. PMID: 25918370.
- Schliehe C, Flynn EK, Vilagos B, Richson U, Swaminanthan S, Bosnjak B, Bauer L, Kandasamy RK, Griesshammer IM, Kosack L, Schmitz F, Litvak V, Sissons J, Lercher A, Bhattacharya A, Khamina K, Trivett AL, Tessarollo L, Mesteri I, Hladik A, Merkler D, Kubicek S, Knapp S, Epstein MM, Symer DE, Aderem A, Bergthaler A. The methyltransferase Setdb2 mediates virus-induced susceptibility to bacterial superinfection. Nat Immunol 16(1):67-74, 2015. e-Pub 2014. PMID: 25419628.
- Li J, Kannan M, Trivett AL, Liao H, Wu X, Akagi K, Symer DE. An antisense promoter in mouse L1 retrotransposon open reading frame-1 initiates expression of diverse fusion transcripts and limits retrotransposition. Nucleic Acids Res 42(7):4546-62, 2014. e-Pub 2014. PMID: 24493738.
- Akagi K, Li J, Broutian TR, Padilla-Nash H, Xiao W, Jiang B, Rocco JW, Teknos TN, Kumar B, Wangsa D, He D, Ried T, Symer DE, Gillison ML. Genome-wide analysis of HPV integration in human cancers reveals recurrent, focal genomic instability. Genome Res 24(2):185-99, 2014. e-Pub 2013. PMID: 24201445.
- Golubeva Y, Symer D. Collection and preparation of rodent embryonic samples for transcriptome study. Methods Mol Biol 1092:297-356, 2014. PMID: 24318829.
- He H, Bronisz A, Liyanarachchi S, Nagy R, Li W, Huang Y, Akagi K, Saji M, Kula D, Wojcicka A, Sebastian N, Wen B, Puch Z, Kalemba M, Stachlewska E, Czetwertynska M, Dlugosinska J, Dymecka K, Ploski R, Krawczyk M, Morrison PJ, Ringel MD, Kloos RT, Jazdzewski K, Symer DE, Vieland VJ, Ostrowski M, Jarzab B, de la Chapelle A. SRGAP1 is a candidate gene for papillary thyroid carcinoma susceptibility. J Clin Endocrinol Metab 98(5):E973-80, 2013. e-Pub 2013. PMID: 23539728.
- Akagi K, Li J, Symer DE. How do mammalian transposons induce genetic variation? A conceptual framework: the age, structure, allele frequency, and genome context of transposable elements may define their wide-ranging biological impacts. Bioessays 35(4):397-407, 2013. e-Pub 2013. PMID: 23319453.
- He H, Li W, Wu D, Nagy R, Liyanarachchi S, Akagi K, Jendrzejewski J, Jiao H, Hoag K, Wen B, Srinivas M, Waidyaratne G, Wang R, Wojcicka A, Lattimer IR, Stachlewska E, Czetwertynska M, Dlugosinska J, Gierlikowski W, Ploski R, Krawczyk M, Jazdzewski K, Kere J, Symer DE, Jin V, Wang Q, de la Chapelle A. Ultra-rare mutation in long-range enhancer predisposes to thyroid carcinoma with high penetrance. PLoS One 8(5):e61920, 2013. e-Pub 2013. PMID: 23690926.
- Hertlein E, Beckwith KA, Lozanski G, Chen TL, Towns WH, Johnson AJ, Lehman A, Ruppert AS, Bolon B, Andritsos L, Lozanski A, Rassenti L, Zhao W, Jarvinen TM, Senter L, Croce CM, Symer DE, de la Chapelle A, Heerema NA, Byrd JC. Characterization of a new chronic lymphocytic leukemia cell line for mechanistic in vitro and in vivo studies relevant to disease. PLoS One 8(10):e76607, 2013. e-Pub 2013. PMID: 24130782.
- Prüfer K, Munch K, Hellmann I, Akagi K, Miller JR, Walenz B, Koren S, Sutton G, Kodira C, Winer R, Knight JR, Mullikin JC, Meader SJ, Ponting CP, Lunter G, Higashino S, Hobolth A, Dutheil J, Karakoç E, Alkan C, Sajjadian S, Catacchio CR, Ventura M, Marques-Bonet T, Eichler EE, André C, Atencia R, Mugisha L, Junhold J, Patterson N, Siebauer M, Good JM, Fischer A, Ptak SE, Lachmann M, Symer DE, Mailund T, Schierup MH, Andrés AM, Kelso J, Pääbo S. The bonobo genome compared with the chimpanzee and human genomes. Nature 486(7404):527-31, 2012. PMID: 22722832.
- Li J, Akagi K, Hu Y, Trivett AL, Hlynialuk CJ, Swing DA, Volfovsky N, Morgan TC, Golubeva Y, Stephens RM, Smith DE, Symer DE. Mouse endogenous retroviruses can trigger premature transcriptional termination at a distance. Genome Res 22(5):870-84, 2012. e-Pub 2012. PMID: 22367191.
- Billington CJ, Ng B, Forsman C, Schmidt B, Bagchi A, Symer DE, Schotta G, Gopalakrishnan R, Sarver AL, Petryk A. The molecular and cellular basis of variable craniofacial phenotypes and their genetic rescue in Twisted gastrulation mutant mice. Dev Biol 355(1):21-31, 2011. e-Pub 2011. PMID: 21549111.
- He H, Liyanarachchi S, Akagi K, Nagy R, Li J, Dietrich RC, Li W, Sebastian N, Wen B, Xin B, Singh J, Yan P, Alder H, Haan E, Wieczorek D, Albrecht B, Puffenberger E, Wang H, Westman JA, Padgett RA, Symer DE, de la Chapelle A. Mutations in U4atac snRNA, a component of the minor spliceosome, in the developmental disorder MOPD I. Science 332(6026):238-40, 2011. PMID: 21474760.
- Akagi K, Stephens RM, Li J, Evdokimov E, Kuehn MR, Volfovsky N, Symer DE. MouseIndelDB: a database integrating genomic indel polymorphisms that distinguish mouse strains. Nucleic Acids Res 38:D600-6, 2010. e-Pub 2009. PMID: 19933259.
- Schneider AM, Duffield AS, Symer DE, Burns KH. Roles of retrotransposons in benign and malignant hematologic disease. Cellscience 6(2):121-145, 2009. PMID: 20200603.
- Agrawal Y, Koch WM, Xiao W, Westra WH, Trivett AL, Symer DE, Gillison ML. Oral human papillomavirus infection before and after treatment for human papillomavirus 16-positive and human papillomavirus 16-negative head and neck squamous cell carcinoma. Clin Cancer Res 14(21):7143-50, 2008. PMID: 18981014.
- Akagi K, Li J, Stephens RM, Volfovsky N, Symer DE. Extensive variation between inbred mouse strains due to endogenous L1 retrotransposition. Genome Res 18(6):869-80, 2008. e-Pub 2008. PMID: 18381897.
- Van Duyne R, Easley R, Wu W, Berro R, Pedati C, Klase Z, Kehn-Hall K, Flynn EK, Symer DE, Kashanchi F. Lysine methylation of HIV-1 Tat regulates transcriptional activity of the viral LTR. Retrovirology 5:40, 2008. e-Pub 2008. PMID: 18498648.
- Symer DE, Connelly C, Szak ST, Caputo EM, Cost GJ, Parmigiani G, Boeke JD. Human L1 retrotransposition is associated with genetic instability in vivo. Cell 110(3):327-38, 2002. PMID: 12176320.
- Symer DE, Bender J. Genomic stability. Hip-hopping out of control. Nature 411(6834):146-7, 149, 2001. PMID: 11346774.
- Gillison ML, Koch WM, Capone RB, Spafford M, Westra WH, Wu L, Zahurak ML, Daniel RW, Viglione M, Symer DE, Shah KV, Sidransky D. Evidence for a causal association between human papillomavirus and a subset of head and neck cancers. J Natl Cancer Inst 92(9):709-20, 2000. PMID: 10793107.
- Reim JW, Symer DE, Watson DC, Dintzis RZ, Dintzis HM. Low molecular weight antigen arrays delete high affinity memory B cells without affecting specific T-cell help. Mol Immunol 33(17-18):1377-88, 1996. PMID: 9171897.
- Symer DE, Reim J, Dintzis RZ, Voss EW, Dintzis HM. Durable elimination of high affinity, T cell-dependent antibodies by low molecular weight antigen arrays in vivo. J Immunol 155(12):5608-16, 1995. PMID: 7499844.
- Dintzis HM, Symer DE, Dintzis RZ, Zawadzke LE, Berg JM. A comparison of the immunogenicity of a pair of enantiomeric proteins. Proteins 16(3):306-8, 1993. PMID: 8346194.
- Symer DE, Paznekas WA, Shin HS. A requirement for membrane-associated phospholipase A2 in platelet cytotoxicity activated by receptors for immunoglobulin G and complement. J Exp Med 177(4):937-47, 1993. PMID: 8459221.
- Symer DE, Dintzis RZ, Diamond DJ, Dintzis HM. Inhibition or activation of human T cell receptor transfectants is controlled by defined, soluble antigen arrays. J Exp Med 176(5):1421-30, 1992. PMID: 1402685.
- Diamond DJ, Szalay P, Symer D, Hao P, Shin HS, Dintzis RZ, Dintzis HM, Reinherz EL, Siliciano RF. Major histocompatibility complex independent T cell receptor-antigen interaction: functional analysis using fluorescein derivatives. J Exp Med 174(1):229-41, 1991. PMID: 2056277.
- Nishijima J, Wright TM, Hoffman RD, Liao F, Symer DE, Shin HS. Lysophosphatidylcholine metabolism to 1,2-diacylglycerol in lymphoblasts: involvement of a phosphatidylcholine-hydrolyzing phospholipase C. Biochemistry 28(7):2902-9, 1989. PMID: 2742817.
- Slezak S, Symer DE, Shin HS. Platelet-mediated cytotoxicity. Role of antibody and C3, and localization of the cytotoxic system in membranes. J Exp Med 166(2):489-505, 1987. PMID: 3598464.
- Repasky EA, Symer DE, Bankert RB. Spectrin immunofluorescence distinguishes a population of naturally capped lymphocytes in situ. J Cell Biol 99(1 Pt 1):350-5, 1984. PMID: 6376522.
Editorials
- Symer DE. High-fives for FIV?. Trends in Microbiology 6(6):220, 06/1998, 1998.
- Symer DE. Super HHV-8. Trends in Microbiology 5(5):434, 1997.
- Symer DE. Book Review; Encyclopedia of Cancer. Journal of the National Cancer Institute 89:966-967, 1997.
Book Chapters
- Symer DE, Boeke JD. An everlasting war dance between retrotransposons and their metazoan hosts. In: Retroviruses: Molecular Biology, Genomics and Pathogenesis. Caister Academic Press, 2010.